A bit of rain landed in Seattle today, and it was seriously welcomed!  I had to water the new fruit trees and roses this week to make sure they make it through their first year.  The roses look great.  The fruit trees look a little stressed.  After todays rain and cooler temperatures, I’m sure they will perk up, however.

We have wrens nesting in a bird box we set on some shelves outside the greenhouse.  Wrens are my favorite city birds.  They are cheerful and spunky and they communicate clearly when they are annoyed.

The hardworking parents are constantly carrying insects to their chicks.

Geranium x cantabrigiense “Biokovo” blooming under a stand of Voodoo Lilies in the Doug fir bed.

Another photo of the white Hesperis matronalis.

One of the throwback lavender Hesperis.

Linaria purpurea “Canon J. Went” growing in a pot near the Doug fir bed.

We have a couple of rhododendrons outside the living room window.  They were the wrong choice for a foundation planting, as this is a tall cultivar.  We trim them so low that they hardly bloom.  The plan is to move them one day and replace them with dwarf hydrangeas.  The flowers, however few, are a nice orchid shade.

I’m not a big fan of hybrid tea roses–they tend to have gorgeous flowers on ugly shrubs.  I’ve had the above plant for years, though, and while it has the usual faults of a hybrid tea, including black spot and other diseases and pests, the flowers are such a vivid shade that I can’t help but smile when it blooms.  This is “Europeana.”

Another view, with the raindrops on the petals.

This is very interesting.  The clematis that I have on the Jeff Tangen arbor usually has small flowers with four petals.  The first flowers this year at the top of the arbor are these amazingly huge, six-petals, and stunning.  I bought the parent of this cutting without a name, but I suspect it might be “Jackmanii.”

More pictures of the Geraneum phaeum hybrid in the driveway bed…this is out of focus a bit, but the color is captured nicely.

If you look closely, you can see the habit of the phaeum hybrid here in contrast to the G. macrorrhizum at its feet.

The standard Linaria purpurea.  These plants are vigorous, but graceful.  They seed about and volunteer a bit, but nothing like their noxious (but beautiful) cousin, Linaria vulgaris.

You get a feel more for the habit of the plant here.  This is a mature one growing in the ground near the driveway.

The arboretum rose seedling behind Leon’s fantastic Pod sculpture.  This rose is blooming really well this year and the fragrance is subtle, but excellent.

Lazy photographer trying to get the picture without kneeling down with the plant!  But I like this picture, anyway–with Jeff Tangen’s sculpture behind and the fantastic fluted petals of the poppy.

A picture from above, showing raindrops on the petals.  This is a seedling from Papaver orientale “Pizzicato.”

Yet another photo.  The surrounding plants are seedlings of a thug plant sold to me as Dracocephalum moldavica.  These do not actually appear to be that plant, nor any other plant I can identify.  I have to shear them back after flowering to keep them from seeding, as they are prolific and filled with wander-lust.

Goumi berries starting to swell.  These grow amazingly fast into ripe berries–should have some fresh eating by the end of June.

The dwarf mulberry that had been planted in the orchard bed for two years got mowed accidentally early on, and subsequently just never really recovered.  I replaced it today with two Honeyberry plants, “Tundra” and “Cinderella.”  These Lonicera caerulea var. edulis cultivars should pollinate each other and be full of fruit starting in the next year or two.

The miniature rose in the orchard garden with raindrops on it.

This poor little penstemon from brother Tim battles the bindweed every year, but manages to survive.  I’ve increased my eradication efforts this year–I pull the rampant vines up every day to try and get them to disappear.

Raindrops on Solomon’s Seal (Polygonatum multiflorum) leaves.

Lovely leaves and stems–a fantastic combination of substance and grace.

More raindrops.  And I’m hoping for many, many more raindrops as I don’t have much time right now to water things.

Such a crazy time in life and in the garden!  Seattle pretty much skipped spring and jumped right into summer.  We had multiple days in the 80’s in April, and it has been really dry, as well.  I will be putting the sprinkler out tomorrow.

I love this blackberry plant for its flowers and the promise they hold.  There were hardly any bees early on, but the last few days this plant has been abuzz with pollinators.

I’ve had this miniature rose since before we moved to this house 20 years ago.  It is finally getting some sun and a chance to flourish after the redo of the orchard garden last year.

The buds are deep yellow, but the flowers fade to a soft cream.

This lovely allium relative has the unfortunate name of Nectarscordum.

The flowers face down, so can  be tough to view…

Close-up.

The deep purple columbines contrast nicely with the bright raspberry foliage.  I keep cutting the raspberries back, but they are always one step ahead of me.  Tough to get mad at them during berry season, though.

The iris that were burned in Leon’s fire accident last year are blooming.  Only the really hardy, near-wild ones have flowers, but there are six spikes this year.  I love the look and the very distinctive fragrance.

The flowers are kind of wilty in all the hot sun, but the way they unfold and refold is interesting.  This was the iris that my Mom grew in her garden in Burien.

The species rose that I grew from a seed from the arboretum is blooming.  I love single roses.  These flowers are superficially similar to the blackberry blooms in the orchard bed.

 

This rose gets lovely hips, too, but I will need to cut it back before it has a chance this year–it is planted in a bad spot at the end of the driveway and it encroaches on the driveway and the street.

Dame’s rockets under Leon’s Miracle Gro sculpture in the Douglas fir bed.

I love how the dames rockets have spread.  They have a nice spicy scent and if I cut them back, they’ll bloom again.

Rhodohypoxis baurii form Edelweiss blooming in the greenhouse.

A larger division of the same clone.

The masdevallias keep blooming…

Freesia laxa with the orchids behind.

Close up of the seed-grown freesias.

 

The pitcher plant in bloom with a hatching of orb weavers behind.

A little more perspective on this interesting bloom.

Gorgeous Hippeatrum “Jade Dragon” in bloom in the greenhouse.

A different view.

The clivia show wasn’t as brilliant this year, but there were still some lovely flowers.

More clivia blooms.

These tiny seedlings of Geranium “Summer Snow” are tiny compared to the meadow cranesbill below that were started the same day.

Mountain bluets blooming in the Doug fir bed.

This is Brunnera “Alexander’s Great.”  So far, it seems okay with the dry, well drained soil of the Doug fir bed.

More pictures of the Miracle Gro with hesperis at its feet.

Close-up of the dame’s rockets (hesperis).  I grew the white ones from seed years ago and they persist as volunteers, with just a few lapsing into the more common lavender.

I love this little hosta in the Doug fir bed.  It has perfect foliage and a neat shape.

Another picture of the dame’s rockets.  I guess I really like them!

 

Lilac “Miss Kim” is a little beauty in front of our living room window.  It stays so low and blooms for almost a month.

All of these flowers, and a fresh fragrance, too.

This happy pansy wintered over in a pot on the driveway.

Here is a flower from the blackberry “Wild Treasure.”  This plant is very happy on the trellis this year and has a lot of flowers.  I’m hopeful for berries this year.

You can see all the flowers on Wild Treasure here.  We should have berries in a couple of weeks.

The Apache blackberry cane that I tipped last year at 6 feet has hundreds of flowers this year.  I’m looking forward to some serious blackberry production this year.

Another photo of Apache flowers.   I love these delicate blooms.

 

Here is one of the Jacob’s ladders I stated from seed last year.  It didn’t look like much all alone, but the photo makes it look pretty showy! this is the only one that bloomed of the 10 or so that I planted in the orchard bed last year.

Sweet woodruff flowers.  There is just a fringe of this ground cover near the arbor.

Detail of Solomon’s seal flowers and leaves.

More Solomon’s seals.

One of my favorite roses–this is Souvenir de St. Annes, I think.  It has the nicest fragrance and wonderful blooms.

The shrub isn’t doing well in a pot, so I  need to move it to the garden–I will look to doing that sometime soon before I lose  it altogether.

Jacob’s ladders of a softer shade.

And more.  These grow along the driveway.

Geranium macrorrhizum blooming all over the garden.  I like these.  They are less invasive than some, but spread enough to cover necessary ground.

Another amazing geranium.  This is a phaeum cultivar.  It grows up nicely through the big foots and blooms for a couple of weeks with these purple blooms.

More detail of the “Mourning Widow.”